Articles by Johanna Zanon
International Journal of Fashion Studies, 2021
Editorial of the special issue on "Fashion Labour".
International Journal of Fashion Studies, 2021
This practice-based article examines an attempt to reconnect fashion labour with value, after the... more This practice-based article examines an attempt to reconnect fashion labour with value, after the fast fashion system increased the gap between the two. Developed by Norwegian fashion brand and collective platform HAiKw/ (Harald Lunde Helgesen and Ida Falck Øien), the Drop-in Factory was a fashion design experiment conducted at the non-profit art space Kunsthall Oslo in 2019. In this experiment, labour was outsourced to consumers-visitors, who by contract paid for equipment rental and training, earning ‘Factory Coins’ that could only be spent on the finished product. Inviting amateurs to make their own garment in a workshop setting has become a common strategy of design activism in fashion. However, instead of focusing on teaching individuals craft expertise, the Drop-in Factory explored collective making practices in an industrial-like environment, inspired by manufacturing and scientific management. Tensions arose over pay when some participants felt that their labour was unfairly compensated. As a response, roleplaying emerged from the experiment. Interviews of participants, conducted months later, incidentally echoed roleplay debriefing sessions. Their accounts show that they acquired labour literacy and embodied knowledge of fashion manufacturing, which extended to contracts and remuneration. While it remains unclear whether the Drop-in Factory led participants to revalue fashion labour, audience participation itself became the mediation of fashion labour.
![Research paper thumbnail of The labour of ‘ready-to-measure’: An interview with Jeanne Vicerial [Open Section]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/79489743/thumbnails/1.jpg)
International Journal of Fashion Studies, 2021
Introducing Paris-based Jeanne Vicerial is complicated by the fact that her practice resists stri... more Introducing Paris-based Jeanne Vicerial is complicated by the fact that her practice resists strict categorizations and is perhaps best encapsulated by the openended designation of creative and making worker. It is precisely because she finds existing categories 'oppressive' that she has come to challenge accepted conventions of the fashion system. A key issue Vicerial addresses in her work is how to reconcile two modes of creation and production, made-to-measure and ready-to-wear. In the former, the garment is adapted to the individual's body, while in the latter, the individual's body must adapt to standardized norms. To this end, in 2014, she established the project 'Clinique Vestimentaire' ('Sartorial clinic'), combining theory and practice. The clinic formed the basis of Vicerial's doctoral research (2019), which conflates made-to-measure and ready-to-wear into prêt-à-mesure ('ready-to-measure'), a new paradigm that reintroduces individual bodies into the production chain at a semi-industrial scale. Vicerial therefore conceived a novel technique to produce ready-to-beworn garments based on individual measurements that she calls tricotissage ('knitting-weaving'). This technique bypasses fabrics to make direct use of a sturdy thread, both knitted and woven until it forms a final product fitting a single body. Subsequently, in partnership with the Mechatronics Laboratory at Mines ParisTech, she developed a machine specifically designed to implement knitting-weaving and automatize otherwise repetitive gestures. Because
, researching different aspects of the couture house of Jean Patou. She successfully completed he... more , researching different aspects of the couture house of Jean Patou. She successfully completed her doctoral degree at the University of Oslo in 2017, with a dissertation on the revival of haute couture brands. She currently works as an independent researcher and curator. This paper explores the early diversification of Paris haute couture firms through the lens of the wholesale clothing line of the house of Jean Patou. In 1929, Jean Patou founded a separate division under the name "Jane Paris." He aimed to better reach his American buyers, therefore complementing the strategies of Americanization for his haute couture house. The case of Jane Paris allows us to examine how Paris couturiers developed their own ready-to-wear in a context of increased international competition and economic difficulties for the traditional haute couture model. That the Jane Paris experiment only lasted for a few months while the house of Jean Patou flourished suggests that the strategy to diversify succeeded in beauty and accessories, rather than in clothing.
European Fashion: The Creation of a Global Industry, 2018
This article discusses the creation and production of haute couture collections at the house of J... more This article discusses the creation and production of haute couture collections at the house of Jean Patou, and unveils the tension between the personalisation of fashion in the figure of the couturier and the intrinsically collective nature of fashion labour. The organisation of couture workshops, where the new designs were elaborated, was strictly hierarchical. At the helm, the heads of workshops worked both as managers (chefs de service), dressers (essayeuses), and designers (modélistes). The creation process involved many actors, including Jean Patou himself whose specific role is reassessed in the present article. The apparent lack of changes in the designs ordered by both private and professional customers suggests that the house of Patou tried to standardise its creations. This fits into the broader picture of production rationalisation at Patou, which also entailed mechanising the workshops and optimising communication between different departments, both corollaries to the principles of scientific management being more widely implemented at the time. However, the supposed modernity of production lines at Patou was more discursive than operative : the process remained largely indebted to practices developed in the couture industry since the 19th century. Dependent on highly skilled workers, the house of Patou offered particularly attractive wages while imposing strict contractual obligations. Workers’ mobility across firms it contributed to the dynamism of Parisian haute couture industry as it disseminated successful artistic, technic and organisational legacies. Incidentally, the diffusion of best practices within the Patou company fostered its longevity after the death of the couturier in 1936.
Livraisons d'histoire de l'architecture, 2014:1, 27, pp.129-152., 2014
Catalogue essays by Johanna Zanon
The Hands that Unravel the Sweater, 2022
Kunsthåndverk, 2022
Hvordan kan kunsthåndverk være monumentalt – og bør det være det?
Bør materialbaserte kunstnere ... more Hvordan kan kunsthåndverk være monumentalt – og bør det være det?
Bør materialbaserte kunstnere «Go Big or Go Home» når det gjelder konkurranser for kunst i offentlig rom? Det amerikanske slagordet betyr at man må satse alt for å lykkes – en filosofi som oppmuntrer en til å være modig. Det handler også om størrelse, både på ambisjoner og resultater. Overført til kunst i offentlige rom antyder slagordet at å lage store ting er den eneste måten å få oppdrag på. Men hva betyr egentlig det i et felt der mange arbeider i mindre format?
Dette praktiske spørsmålet var utgangspunktet for en utforskning av de konseptuelle rammeverkene for kunsthåndverk i offentlige rom på et fagseminar jeg organiserte på vegne av Norske Kunsthåndverkere i desember 2021. Seminaret så på de spesifikke utfordringene og mulighetene som kunsthåndverkere og materialbaserte kunstnere opplever i offentlige rom knyttet til skala, teknikker, institusjoner og brukere, samt det stedsspesifikke.
I denne teksten tar jeg opp noen tråder fra de forskjellige foredragene, som jeg vever sammen for å sette søkelys på hvordan kunsthåndverkere tilnærmer seg monumentalitet og hvordan de også oppfordrer til det motsatte – «umonumentalitet» eller antimonumentalitet.
RAM Publication #7, Shapes of Breath, 2021
In this essay, Johanna Zanon analyses how the artist duo Frantzsen&Mjanger has explored the multi... more In this essay, Johanna Zanon analyses how the artist duo Frantzsen&Mjanger has explored the multifaceted and ambiguous relationship between glass and air through breath. She looks at the three main series of works they have developed since their debut in 2017, as well as the new productions for their exhibition "Shapes of Breath" (2021) at RAM Galleri in Oslo.
Essay published in the exhibition catalogue "Shapes of Breath," edited by Joakim Borda-Pedreira, 2021.
The exhibition with the same title took place at RAM Galleri in Oslo between November 4 and December 5, 2021.
RAM Publication #7, Shapes of Breath, 2021
This essay reflects on Johanna Zanon's participation in Frantzsen&Mjanger’s "Walking with Breath"... more This essay reflects on Johanna Zanon's participation in Frantzsen&Mjanger’s "Walking with Breath" performance in August 2021 in Lofoten, after a day’s symposium on the "States of Glass" at Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter.
Essay published in the exhibition catalogue "Shapes of Breath," edited by Joakim Borda-Pedreira, 2021.
The exhibition with the same title took place at RAM Galleri in Oslo between November 4 and December 5, 2021.
The Whole Sell, 2021
"Welcome to the fashion house of Jean Patou! Shopping experiences from the collections from Fall-... more "Welcome to the fashion house of Jean Patou! Shopping experiences from the collections from Fall-Winter 1920 to Spring-Summer 1922 are now available in pdf. Consume vicariously from the comfort of your own home, through the eyes and funds of professional buyers and private customers. The names are real, the stories fictional. Consume as many as you can, consume without guilt, consume historical! This is fashion – free from cruelty, waste and unethical labor."
Content:
-"Jean Patou, First Ledger. Professional Buyers, 1920-1922", Johanna Zanon
-"Jean Patou, Second Ledger. Private Customers, 1920-1922", Johanna Zanon and Emmanuelle Polle
-"Postscript: Ledgers, Historical Fiction & Vicarious Consumption", Johanna Zanon
This text was published in the online artist publication "The Whole Sell", at https://thewholesell.praksisoslo.org/ZanonPolle
Exhibition catalogue for 'As Handsome as the Chance Encounter' at RAM Galleri, 27 February-29 Mar... more Exhibition catalogue for 'As Handsome as the Chance Encounter' at RAM Galleri, 27 February-29 March 2020.
Content:
-Foreword, by Joakim Borda-Pedreira
-As Handsome as a Comparison, by Johanna Zanon
-Undressing Les Chants de Maldoror: from the rags of the Creator to the Riches of Mervyn, by Johanna Zanon
-Les Chants de Maldoror (excerpts), by Comte de Lautréamont
-In the Footsteps of Maldoror and Mervyn in Paris, 1869
-A Material Re-enactment of the Sixth Canto in the 21st Century, by Johanna Zanon
-Biographies
Cinemateket programkatalog, 2019
This film cycle shows how French fashion has been depicted on screen over time through eleven fil... more This film cycle shows how French fashion has been depicted on screen over time through eleven films. It encompasses fictional films from the early days of cinema to the present day, and blends many different genres from romantic comedy to thriller. All these works present different aspects of the French fashion industry from production to distribution, promotion, and consumption.
1925, la femme conquérante [1925, the Conquering Woman]
1925, Quand l’Art Déco séduit le monde, Emmanuel Bréon eds., exhibition book, Paris, Norma., 2013
Dissertations by Johanna Zanon
MA Thesis: "Toujours se rappeler qu'habiller n'est pas déguiser," Jean Patou (1919-1929)
Talks by Johanna Zanon
The Archipelagic Exhibition
At the symposium "The Annual Craft Exhibition", at Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand (Norway),... more At the symposium "The Annual Craft Exhibition", at Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand (Norway), on November 26, 2021.
“This Was Made After Munch: The Concept of Appropriation in Contemporary Art.”
At Clarion Hotel Oslo, Oslo, Norway, on December 12, 2019.
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Articles by Johanna Zanon
Catalogue essays by Johanna Zanon
Bør materialbaserte kunstnere «Go Big or Go Home» når det gjelder konkurranser for kunst i offentlig rom? Det amerikanske slagordet betyr at man må satse alt for å lykkes – en filosofi som oppmuntrer en til å være modig. Det handler også om størrelse, både på ambisjoner og resultater. Overført til kunst i offentlige rom antyder slagordet at å lage store ting er den eneste måten å få oppdrag på. Men hva betyr egentlig det i et felt der mange arbeider i mindre format?
Dette praktiske spørsmålet var utgangspunktet for en utforskning av de konseptuelle rammeverkene for kunsthåndverk i offentlige rom på et fagseminar jeg organiserte på vegne av Norske Kunsthåndverkere i desember 2021. Seminaret så på de spesifikke utfordringene og mulighetene som kunsthåndverkere og materialbaserte kunstnere opplever i offentlige rom knyttet til skala, teknikker, institusjoner og brukere, samt det stedsspesifikke.
I denne teksten tar jeg opp noen tråder fra de forskjellige foredragene, som jeg vever sammen for å sette søkelys på hvordan kunsthåndverkere tilnærmer seg monumentalitet og hvordan de også oppfordrer til det motsatte – «umonumentalitet» eller antimonumentalitet.
Essay published in the exhibition catalogue "Shapes of Breath," edited by Joakim Borda-Pedreira, 2021.
The exhibition with the same title took place at RAM Galleri in Oslo between November 4 and December 5, 2021.
Essay published in the exhibition catalogue "Shapes of Breath," edited by Joakim Borda-Pedreira, 2021.
The exhibition with the same title took place at RAM Galleri in Oslo between November 4 and December 5, 2021.
Content:
-"Jean Patou, First Ledger. Professional Buyers, 1920-1922", Johanna Zanon
-"Jean Patou, Second Ledger. Private Customers, 1920-1922", Johanna Zanon and Emmanuelle Polle
-"Postscript: Ledgers, Historical Fiction & Vicarious Consumption", Johanna Zanon
This text was published in the online artist publication "The Whole Sell", at https://thewholesell.praksisoslo.org/ZanonPolle
Content:
-Foreword, by Joakim Borda-Pedreira
-As Handsome as a Comparison, by Johanna Zanon
-Undressing Les Chants de Maldoror: from the rags of the Creator to the Riches of Mervyn, by Johanna Zanon
-Les Chants de Maldoror (excerpts), by Comte de Lautréamont
-In the Footsteps of Maldoror and Mervyn in Paris, 1869
-A Material Re-enactment of the Sixth Canto in the 21st Century, by Johanna Zanon
-Biographies
Dissertations by Johanna Zanon
Talks by Johanna Zanon